Empowering shareholders to hold corporations accountable

Jessie Giles is the Chief Program Officer at Majority Action and was previously the Research Director, leading research on corporate accountability efforts. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) designation.

Previously Jessie led corporate research and strategy on the Fight for $15 campaign at the Service Employees International Union, a campaign that has won $70 billion in raises for 24 million working people across the U.S., holding the world's largest fast food companies accountable for their corporate misdeeds.

In Australia, she worked in the clean technology sector, advocating for the adoption of electric vehicles and supporting policies with government and private sector partners, and on corporate accountability campaigns for labor organizations.

Cerece Rennie Murphy is the Director of Development at Majority Action. Cerece brings over 20 years of development and project management experience to her role of supporting racial justice and climate action programs within the organization.

Cerece's previous work focused on community and international development, climate change, and nuclear weapons abolition at Physicians for Social Responsibility, Global Communities, and the Development Corporation of Columbia Heights.

Rukmani Bhatia is the Director of Policy & Advocacy at Majority Action.

Rukmani previously served on the Federal Affairs team at GIFFORDS, where she worked to advance federal gun safety legislation, including the now enacted Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. She led GIFFORDS' federal appropriations portfolio and worked closely with partners to advance campaigns to secure millions of dollars in federal funding for programs to reduce gun violence. Rukmani was formerly at the Center for American Progress, where she authored reports on gaps in federal regulations and oversight of the gun industry.

During the Obama Administration, Rukmani served as an adviser and speechwriter to the Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia at USAID. In this role, she engaged in interagency and Congressional advocacy efforts to ensure the critical region remained a policy and budgetary priority. Prior to her political appointment, Rukmani was the inaugural Hillary R. Clinton Research Fellow at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace & Security. She was an integral researcher and author for the Institute's flagship publications Women Leading Peace and Women & Climate Change.

Rukmani received her bachelor's degree from Wellesley College and her master's degree from Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Sarah Weintraub is the Director of People & Culture at Majority Action, located in Southern Vermont. She brings over 12 years of experience in organizational and programmatic leadership, with a focus on equity practices and organizational development.

Prior to joining Majority Action, Sarah served as the Director of Learning, Development, and Culture at Ekō (formerly SumOfUs), a global mass mobilization organization fighting corporate power. Earlier in her career, she held leadership roles at the Buddhist Peace Fellowship and Fellowship of Reconciliation's Colombia Peace Presence.

Divya Sundar (she/her) is the Director of Research at Majority Action. She comes to Majority Action from the plaintiff-side law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, where she conducted investigative, economic, and financial analysis for several groundbreaking antitrust, securities, and mass torts class action cases. Previously, Divya was the Lead Strategic Researcher at East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), where she used strategic corporate research to support campaigns for worker protections during the COVID-19 emergency, local labor standards enforcement, hotel worker rights, and equitable development on public lands. She also served as Research and Policy Analyst for the United Auto Workers' campaign at the flagship Tesla factory, where her responsibilities included strategic corporate research, lobbying, and political organizing.

Divya has a B.A. in History from the University of Chicago and an M.A. in Comparative Cultural Studies and Graduate Minor in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Ohio State University. She is currently completing her M.S. in Economics at Purdue University.

Bryant Sewell comes to Majority Action from the Climate Investigations Center where he conducted research and analysis into corporations, trade associations, and industry front groups that worked to stall sound energy policy progress. Bryant has a track record of social impact. Previously, he spearheaded partnerships that increased the diversity and inclusion of businesses within the cannabis industry and provided business development services to worker cooperatives. Bryant is a graduate of Christopher Newport University and earned a Masters of Arts from American University School of International Service.

Whitney Shepard helps lead campaign strategy at Majority Action. She believes that systems change through our interactions with them. Because of this, she values campaigns that illuminate new pathways of systemic engagement and creates opportunities for people to realize their full potential and ability to impact the world positively. Whitney’s background as a community organizer and movement researcher informs her approach to social & systemic change. She has worked at the local and national levels on campaigns addressing food insecurity, the prison industrial complex, immigration reform, workers’ rights, and Wall Street accountability. In her work, Whitney advocates for the explicit connection to be made between economic and racial justice and explores how economic structures are used to institute racial bias, harm, and inequity.

In addition to her role at Majority Action, Whitney is a national member of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). She believes it is important to learn from our past to better inform our future.

Laura De Palma comes to Majority Action with a background in organizing. She has organized at the intersection of gender, racial, and economic justice and has campaigned for Universal Family Care, Universal Long-Term Care, and Paid Family Leave. She led the Michigan Caring Majority campaign and coalition to win the Long-Term Care Study Bill in 2018, which was a project of Caring Across Generations. She was the Director of Stakeholder Engagement for the Michigan Long-Term Services and Supports Feasibility Study with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Altarum, Milliman, and Michigan United. In that role, she designed and managed the implementation of a participatory and inclusive stakeholder engagement program for organizational and coalition partners and people mostly directly impacted within the care landscape across the state of Michigan. She has been trained at Rockwood Leadership Institute and Midwest Academy.

Jason Opeña Disterhoft is a senior investor engagement specialist, working with investors to strengthen their proxy voting practices and policies to mitigate systemic risk from climate change and racial inequity. Jason comes to Majority Action from Rainforest Action Network, where he led engagement with the biggest U.S. banks on their fossil fuel lending and underwriting. Prior to that, he worked on business and human rights at Amnesty International USA. Jason holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and a master's degree (in philosophy) from Tufts University.

Radhika Vazirani is the Executive and Operations Coordinator at Majority Action, located in Long Beach, CA. She brings experience as a Project Management Consultant, managing operations for a variety of businesses. She is passionate about building organizational systems that streamline processes and increase efficiency. She is dedicated to helping our organization succeed as we scale.

Prior to consulting, she started her own e-commerce business called Jiva More Life, worked at GE Healthcare managing multi-million dollar sales, and has a background in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.

Based in Washington D.C., Yanira Duran is the Operations and People Manager at Majority Action. As a result of experiencing systematic obstacles, Yanira has a passion for helping others. Before joining Majority Action, she was the Operations and Finance Coordinator at Generation Hope, supporting the organization in helping student parents succeed. Before her position at Generation Hope, Yanira served as the Contracts and Grants Manager at Accountable.US., a watchdog dedicated to holding special interests accountable for corruption. She assisted the senior team in establishing and operationalizing the organization following its launch in 2020.

Yanira holds a Bachelor's of Social Welfare from the University of Kansas.